Love

We are going through the 40 days of love series at church right now. I have a lot on my brain today and can't find the bulletin with my notes at the moment, but pastor Mark said some great things that I want to post about on here. If I find my notes I'll write more about it.

The thing that stuck with me the most:
Myth--If I am perfect people will love me.
Fact--Jesus was perfect and they nailed him to a cross

That really made me stop and think. I do try to be perfect, and I can't be. I don't think that means I shouldn't strive to be a good person. But I do think it means I can't please everyone. I can only be me. Pastor Mark's point was that people should love us unconditionally, with all our faults, and we should love the same way. He said that a lot of people try to earn love because they were always trying to earn love from their parents, who had conditional love. They need to work through that so that they don't treat people with conditional love. I don't feel my parents treated me that way but it is a very interetsting point. Just gave me a lot to thing about today. And since I kind of have a lot going on at the moment, I needed to stop and think.

NYC pics

Capri and I at the New York botanical gardens NY botanical gardens conservatoryAt the gardensCute baby girlMy neice Elana, and Nephew Braden in a maze (Brent's kids)
Capri at the NY botanical gardens childrens area

Nick and Capri at the top of the Empire State Building

b Capri At the Central Park conservatory
Capri again :)
A cool picture at the Central Park Conservatory gardens
Capri again.......she's just so cute. :)
The atlas at Rockafeller Center. The scuplpter also did work on Bok Tower

Time Square at night
Time square
The statue of libery, we also went to Ellis Island
A 9/11 Memorial on the side of a Fire department across the street from ground zero
The Brooklyn Bridge taken at the South Street Seaport

The Metropolitian museum of art
Central Park
Capri crawling at Central Park
Capri and I sitting in Central Park

Avery on the Lily

We took all the girls up to Bok Tower and took their pictures sitting on a Water lily in the middle of a pond. One of these days I'll get around to posting the pictures but for now you can check out one of Avery on Bok's website.

http://boksanctuary.org/visiting/gardens.html

We're home

Nick and I just got back last night from our fun filled week in NYC. We did all the tourist destinations while we were there. We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We went to the top of the Empire State Building. We went to the Metropolitian Museum of Art. We spend lots of time in Central Park including the Conservatory Garden. We saw Time Square at night, Saint Patrick's Catherdral, and Rockafeller Center. Went to Wall Street, Trinity church, Ground Zero, and South Street Sea Port. We road city buses, the subway and walked until I feet hurt (okay at least mine hurt). We went to the Bronx and saw the New York Botanical Garden, and on our way saw both the old and new Yankey Stadium. We really saw a lot and had a wonderful time. And Capri was perfect the whole trip. Just riding around in the sling and sleeping when she got tired and eatting we stopped and sat down for a few mintues. We couldn't have asked for a better trip. I owe a HUGE thank you to Brent, Rhesa, Braden, and Elana for opening up their home to us for a week, and helping our trip to be so much fun. We enjoyed the time spend with them.

I also owe a huge thanks to my parents and some friends who watched the girls for us while we enjoyed out trip. My mom (and dad for part of the time) watched the girls from Sunday evening until Friday morning. I can't say Thanks enough to her for giving up her week to watch them. I hope my girls will look back with fond memories someday of the memories that they made while staying with my mom, as I do on my stays with my grandparents when I was younger. Tammy watched Sage during the day out at camp while Avery was at school. It's nice to have a friend who can do that. :) Kari watched both girls starting after school on Friday until Sunday after church. Both girls have talked about how much fun they had and asked if they could do it again sometimes. :) It's a big relief to go on a trip and know your children are being well taken care of. Again, thank you all for the help.

I will hopefully post pictures in the next day or two. The girls and I leave on Friday morning to head to Oklahoma for the weekend. I hope to have them up before we leave.

My diaper stash

I am at a place now with my diaper stash where I am pretty happy with what I've got. So just wanted to share.

6 infant prefolds

some extra inserts/doublers

6 more infant prefolds

6 regular tie dyed prefolds

My wonderbag/wetbag

4 little "g" pants and 6 snap in liners

1 bummis cover (I have a white one also), and a kissaluvs fitted I use at night

my pockets

Some fleece covers

And of course the cute baby (wearing another pocket) who wears them all.

My crazy life

You don't realize how busy you are until you see it on paper and are planning a week ahead of time. Nick and I leave to go to NYC on Sunday afternoon. So I am working on getting Avery and Sage packed to stay with my parents, and Capri and I packed for NYC. Nick's on his own, although I have to make sure all his clothes are clean so that he can throw them in a bag at the last minute. We are trying to take the least amount of stuff with us for easier travel which isn't going to be too hard, even with a 6 month old. I think Capri is just going to be super spoiled next week since she'll pretty much be held in a sling all week long.

Getting Avery and Sage's schedule figured out and packing for them has been the biggest headache. I can't praise my mom enough for watching them for us. My dad will be out of town most of the time she has the girls. So a big shout out to my mom for being so awesome. Oh and on Thursday my mom is dropping the girls off at my friend Kari's house and she is watching them until Sunday. And Tammy is watching Sage while Avery is in school on Friday. It's been crazy getting all of that worked out.

Here is the schedule for the week.

Avery goes to school from 7:50-8:25 everyday and has homework everynight.
Monday:
10 a.m. Sage has french lessons
4:30-6:00 Avery has dance lessons (which includes a bag, leotard, and 2 pairs of shoes to pack)
6:00-6:45 Kids choir practice at church for both girls

Wed.
4:30-5:00 Sage has gymnastics
5:15 Dinner at church
6:30-8:00 Awana at church

Thur.
Normally this is girl scout night but we switched it to Saturday mornings which is going to work much better for me.

So add in homework, bath time, dinner, driving time, and conversations and the days fill up quickly. So I've packed school clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, hair stuff, Awana stuff, gymnastics stuff, dance stuff, and everything else. Now I'm ready to get on a plane and go to NYC.